Contest #60: Win a Westcott 28″ Medium Apollo and More (A $170 Value)

The Challenge

For this photo challenge, we would like to see your most emotional image. Erik Valind offers great advice for capturing an emotional photograph in the inspirational video below. Submissions can be any photograph incorporating any feeling: joy, grief, anger, love, etc. Be sure to include the short story behind your shot!

The Prize

This week’s Basics photo challenge winner will be receiving a 28” Medium Apollo a DigiCard Card Reader, and a copy of the book, “Photographic Lighting: Essential Skills”, by John Child and Mark Galer courtesy of Pro Studio Supply.

The winning photographer will also win one of the 200 Lightapalooza Golden Tickets. This ticket will enter him or her into the year-end drawing for a $15,000 Westcott shopping spree, a meet-and-shoot with a Westcott Top Pro, and more!

The Inspiration

In this week’s Basics inspirational video, Westcott Top Pro Erik Valind offers some tips on adding emotion and character to your portraits. By giving your models backstories, or even offering the thought of a personal experience, you can sense more emotion in your shots.

I snapped this photo of two very loving and dear friends of mine in the woods in Michigan. They are an amazing couple and this shot really embodies this emotion for me. I love the intimacy, and how the branches help to frame them in the wilderness.

This was one of the very first portraits that i ever shot of my now wife… We wanted to convey raw emotion so we kept the visuals simple to black and white… this took all the attention away from the photograph itself and put it only on the “raw emotion”…

This picture was taken at the Wild Canyon Games and this event is called the “Swing”. 3 people are place in the swing and pulled up at the top of the telephone pole. One of them has to then pull the release and down you go. Each person has a balloon that you have to try and toss at a target to earn extra points. In this picture, 3 emotions are shown…one with pure joy, one holding on to dear life out of fear/loss of balloon, and pure determination to hit the target!

When our twin boys were born (after 7 years of trying), they spent about two extra months in the NICU because they were early. We practically lived at the nursery. When we finally brought them home I wanted to get some candids of my wife as she bottle fed. I had set up a small softbox beside the rocker to simply get better quality light.
In this shot, my mom is getting to hold one of the boys for the very first time. These were miracle babies, and the one she is holding is named after her.
f/18 1/125s ISO400.

This was one of my favorite images. This was the bride’s father during the wedding. I was so lucky to capture this! I just turned and there he was! So happy for his lovely daughter. The shot that I missed was at the end of the ceremony, where he jumped up in the air and yelled “Cha-Ching!” I guess he was happy that his daughter married a doctor!

When boy-friends cheat, that is when you see the “Real Woman” come alive. Capturing the emotional release of Anger, Sadness, Wrath, and Power. Used the 3 images to tell the complete story behind the shot.

Image was taken with 2 Cameras, both set to same settings and on tripods. Long lens was low to the ground and wide angle was waist high. Used Tether Remote Capture to fire Cameras. Both in High Speed Burst mode.
ISO 1250, 1/500th, f/8
Canon 6D 70-200 at 135mm
Canon 7D 24-70 at 35mm
Lighting: Natural with Photo Basics 5in1 reflector.(Silver)

The semester is ending and final exams are near. She is DETERMINED to be one of many to get the highest grade. Using my Olympus E-520 I captured this photograph of her studying hard with artificial lighting, in manual with spot metering at focal length 43mm, f/4.1, ISO-200, and 1/100 sec.

This is a natural light self portrait of me and my dog, Iggi. He is my best friend. He showed up at my house one day extremely mean and obviously abused. It took a couple of years for him to finally trust us. It took a lot of work, but it was well worth it! He is now a normal, happy boy! 5D Mark III on a tripod with a remote.

During the summer, I had the privledge to watch my friends 5-year old daughter give her father the most awesome birthday present – watching her get up on skis for the first time. Her father is a very accomplished skier. For a family that loves the water like they do, this event was similar to a ‘right of passage’. I feel very fortunate to have been there to capture this special moment. I still can’t get over the intensity of the fathers face as he re-lives his first time on skis – and – the look of fear and apprehension as his daughter finally gets-up. Within a couple frames her face will change to pure enjoyment.

This was shot with natural light in my living room with nothing but a ratty blanket, boppy pillow, and a 5-in-1 reflector. I positioned my newborn so that the window light was coming from camera left and the reflector was placed to the camera right. I got several great shots, but this had the most emotion… as you can tell this was towards the end of the session when he was ready to be done. haha

I brought my camera to the Milford Music Festival and loved the passion coming from Everett Boyd, the bass guitarist in the Bobby Kyle Band. Used a Nikon D300 with AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 1600 at f/5.6 and 1/160.

Wife needed some portfolio shots for the company brochure and when we were done I was fooling around with some other shots of different looks and this came out pretty well for a great surprised look! It was shot with Canon 60D 24-105 F/4 lens combo set at ISO 100, F/8, 1/200 at 75MM (full frame equivalent 120MM). There where three Speedlights used in two softboxes, a main and smaller fill with an open flash on the background. OOPS entered this in Event also but here it is because it belongs here!

I was fortunate enough to witness a new life being brought into the world. It was the most challenging shoot I had ever done as I had to be unobtrusive and tell the story at the same time. We were in a dimly lit room as requested by the couple with only a lamp light coming from behind me. I had to keep repositioning myself so that I wasn’t blocking the only bit of light source. I managed to capture the story and walked away feeling grateful that I was able to witness this magical moment. The joy and wonder of seeing their child for the first time mixed with passionate cries of their newborn son as he takes his first breath.

While taking photos of ministers in my area we have a few minutes of conversation and carching them laughing is a great moment…I did some individual shots of the woman that her husband just loved and decided that he had to join her and take some with the lighting that i found for her session.

This is image is one of my very favorite emotional images. The closed eyes, foreheads touching, holding each other just right. This couple was incredibly in love. My camera was D800, my settings were f/1.4 @ 50 mm, 1/1250, ISO 100.

Claire suffered an anoxic brain injury, a total loss of oxygen. She was clinically dead for 30 minutes. Five minutes after doctors had told her parents they didn’t believe they’d be able to resuscitate Claire, they heard her heart beat again. Five weeks later Claire and her parents were at an intensive inpatient therapy facility. I captured this image during one of the many tenuous emotional moments during their stay at the hospital. While her brain tried to establish communication with the rest of her body, she and her family were in a race against other negative developments that can occur during the recovery period: muscle atrophy, pneumonia, etc. This moment reflects the increasing realization of what Mom is up against as she fights for her daughter, while feeling the heartbreak of seeing your daughter suffer.

I took this image with an iPhone – a DSLR being too intrusive – under natural light conditions, with a large window behind me.

The woman in this scene is overwhelmed by the story in front of her eyes, so intensely that she got frozen while holding her camera and not able to actually click the shutter.
It was so emotional for her that she simply got carried away.
Someone by her side tries to wake her up from her daydream.

We were camping and I was taking some fun pics of my family. My daughter got upset and was crying about something (don’t remember now) and, like a good photographer and mom . . . I grabbed my camera and took a picture . . . and THEN went and comforted her. (I couldn’t resist those big chocolate eyes and crocodile tears)
Shot on my Canon Rebel Xsi at ISO 400, f3.2, 1/160th on my 50mm (1.8) lens.

My friend saw a little garden rabbit in my front yard. She asked to take a picture with it. So, I took her a meadow at the end of my street to make this shot. I used only the natural filtered light coming through the trees and added a speedlight to fill in her face. The light makes the scene very rich. She loved the results. Now it makes me want to have even more lighting equipment!

I was at the park with my grand daughter and I didn’t have any lighting with me I used natural light and the shade, she was mad that we had to go home lol so shes pouting…… I don’t have much at home for equipment absolutely no lights or soft boxes as I am on a small disability check every month and it took me a yr to save for my Nikon D 3200 and im now saving for more equipment and software. I am very passionate about photography I am always on creative live with webinairs and I belong to a number of forums. I have done one photo shoot in the natural enviorment outside and I did buy a reflector and loved it but that’s all I have this far for equipment . Love the contests you are running for sure, and am learning lots from the vids on ur page . I look forward t buying some stock from your site for sure in future I’m already making my priority list lol….